Matt Lohry

The deck also has longitudinal runner planks, which is indicative of a road bridge. Also, the portal bracing is not high enough to accommodate rail traffic.

Mike,

A "mail order bridge" is a mass-produced, single-piece bridge built to a cookie-cutter pattern, welded together, and lifted into place with a crane. They are normally prefab trusses or arches and have no distinguishing features to set them apart from one another. This is one of two identical footbridges in this area; the other is about 1000 feet to the north over the same river. That bridge did not replace any previous bridge. I live around here, so I see these on a regular basis.

Label me a damn fool for thinking this bridge might be around for the long term, as it was in a park-type setting and was in excellent condition—I drove by today and saw an ugly Walmart-inspired MOB where this bridge once stood!

Leslie,

Sadly, I wouldn’t hold my breath on this one—like 99.9% of historic bridges that are “available for adaptive reuse”, it’s likely that no one will want to pony up the hundreds of thousands that it would cost just to move this monster—that $100,000 that they’re offering would likely not even cover mobilization of equipment. Additionally, building a proper substructure to support this would cost many hundreds of thousands more; I’m sure trying not to be a Debbie downer on this, but it’s looking pretty grim for this beauty :’(

Robert,

The pictures that James took are of another bridge just north of the one you're referring to. I've corrected the pin location to reflect its actual location.

This actually appears to be a deck plate girder with timber approaches.

I’ve seen very large culverts and very small arches, so I don’t think the difference is related to size—I think the difference is in the construction—culverts are place-and-fill, where the entire structure (round or rectangular, metal or concrete) is dropped into place and filled over the top. Arches are built up like bridges. Even though corrugated steel was used, this to me is built up as a bridge, and qualifies as an arch.

Apparently this road has been closed for only a couple of years...it's amazing how little time it takes for a road to look like it's been abandoned for a century after it closes.

I wish I were closer to here--there is what appears to be a very old Pratt truss footbridge over the canal about a half-mile north of this location. Lat/Long coords:

43.134748° -75.674952°

Canal St. streetview shows a good view of the east end.

The bridge in the postcard photo is probably the pre-1939 bridge. It looks markedly different than the current one.

I don’t see any steel stringers—It looks like the original floor system is still in place and it still functions as a truss, which is good news; however, a center bent support was added at some point to help increase load capacity.

I stopped to see this bridge earlier today, and I wish I hadn’t. It’s a truly heartbreaking sight. Damage is far worse than I imagined. It would take a miracle worker to fix this one :’(

Just can’t keep the political crap out of this, can you!? And, as always, too YELLOW to put your real name with your asinine comment! Political whining is what Facebook is for, not Bridgehunter.

I believe they’re “French” drains, likely installed because the road surface under the bridge is at a low point. A French drain is just a grate with gravel or other soil underneath that water can pass through to the ground water table. This drain type doesn’t require any plumbing to carry water away.

It looks like there actually is some exposed rebar at the very top of Photo #11, indicating a concrete bridge.